If last night’s World Series opener was a football game it could have been called the Mark Shapiro Bowl, as both Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia were traded away by the Indians general manager during the past 18 months.
Lee was phenomenal and Sabathia also pitched very well when not facing Chase Utley, as the two former Indians combined for 16 strikeouts in 16 innings of two-run ball after posting a cumulative 3.29 ERA in 461.2 innings during the regular season.
Watching two of the best pitchers in baseball square off on the sport’s biggest stage had to be rough on Cleveland fans and this stat probably makes things worse: Last season the Indians had both Lee and Sabathia in their rotation for the first 85 games and went 37-48 in a terrible division.